Regarding Dave Moberg’s (Feb. 21,”War effort must be intense, serious”), I think we have much to agree on. But he failed to meet one of his own two criteria regarding the debate on the war effort, namely seriousness. One fact that must be established is that no one political party holds all blame for this egregiously mismanaged war.

Democrats lacked the fortitude required of them to challenge some of President George Bush’s initiatives. Our country was attacked, and in the attack’s wake there was widespread support for the President. That should not have been the end of accountability. They blank-checked almost every proposal Bush had to make and cowered in the thought that a divergent view or opinion would have been seen as unpatriotic.

Republicans are equally to blame for the state we now find ourselves in. Eager to prove and affirm their status as the party of the military, they jumped over each other to see who could bend over backwards the lowest for Bush.

Yes, it is undeniable we rushed to war. I believe President Theodore Roosevelt said it best in his statement of how we should approach our foreign policy when he said America should “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Had we thoroughly exhausted our diplomatic options, we might have had more support for this war.

As it is now plain for all to see thanks to the Iraq Study report, the war in Iraq has nothing to do with the events of September 11. We let ambition, and in some respects greed, cloud our judgement, and we ended up attacking a country with little reason. Iraq is no more stable than it was when we invaded five years ago – quite the contrary.

There is a civil and religious war taking root in the country with Shi’ite against Sunni, and the Kurds hoping they will both wipe each other out.

We have needlessly sacrificed the lives of more than 3,000 of our bravest and finest men and women, and have as a result of “collateral damage”, killed more than 60,000 Iraqi civilians. We are in a rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq, and although there is certainly enough blame to go around, I hope our leadership in Congress and the White House can work proactively together to reach a viable and lasting solution.

– Ahmed Faried is a sophomore criminal justice major, e-board member of the Northeastern